Rather OT this but do plasterers tend to quote by the day or m2?

Question may not seem as daft as it sounds as we are looking to get some plastering done in France and have been given a quote in m2 which seems to work out far more expensive than the £150-£200 a day banded about on UK discussion sites?

Real world experiences or even the thoughts of a plasterer on here would be massively appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

no idea how pricing works in France I’m afraid, but over here i tend to price on a day rate. most jobs tend to be at least a day anyhow by the time I’ve set up, floated, cleaned up etc.

£150-200 is steep, even for darn sarf….

Great – much appreciated, any idea how many m2 you do (very roughly) in a working day?

It depends on what’s been plastered really.

Lots of smaller areas or one massive wall ?

If the job is in France and you’re going to use French labour, I think you’re just going to have to go with the French flow and trying to compare with UK prices and practices will only bring you problems.
When in Rome and all that, except you’re in France….
Apologies if I’ve misunderstood something.

I paid £300 day rate for a 2 man job about a fortnight ago.

When in Rome and all that

This – unfortunately. In Belgium it can cost almost twice what you would pay in the Netherlands for some building work :(. Just to give you an idea a good plaster here will cost 55EUR/m2. I’ve paid way less a couple of times but the work is a lot more random and I had to redo some myself. I’d love to pay some of the rates I read here. Most of the time I try and do the work myself as those rates are unaffordable but good quality plastering is a real skill

edit – double post

French person taking down the trousers of the non French shocker!

Not grumbling about using French builders vs French prices at all (in fact likely to use an ex-pat English plasterer) but finding it very hard to get an idea of what is realistic if UK plasterers can be had for not much over £100 a day etc… – the 55 per m2 in Belgium post makes me feel a bit better about the situation though…!

the 55 per m2 in Belgium post makes me feel a bit better about the situation though…!

Thought it might somehow :). That was for Belgian plasterers starting from brick out to a smooth finish. Beautiful work but so it should be.

I seem to remember hearing something about a different technique on the continent. Here we use a fine finish coat but I’ve been told they use one plaster but keep working it as it drys and the finer particles come to the surface. Of bourse, I know nothing about plastering so that could be a load of bollocks.

It’s a skim over plasterboard (already in place) and likely to be done by an ex-pat (with French co) – understand I need to pay the market rate which may be well above UK rates but at the same time don’t want to be taken for a ride…!